Why Are Jews Still In Exile? (Tisha BeAv & Teshuva Special)

0:21Now it's 6:15 p.m. Shabbat is almost over. So we have with us here Rabbi Yaron Reuven Shlita. It's one of the famous lectures. He's going to speak about Tisha B'Av. Why are we still in exile? What's the meaning of Tisha B'Av? So we are happy to have him here, Baruch Hashem, and to strengthen us in this time, in the month of Av. Av is not Elul, but soon it's going to be the month of Elul. Very important message. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you for the love. Thank you for having me. B'ezrat Hashem, next year we could be together again seeing the Mashiach. That's not the same. But the question today that I want to present to the kahal kadosh is: Why is Am Yisrael still in exile? Why are we here? Chazal says that anyone that wants an opportunity to see Yerushalayim in its

1:45with celebrations. We must cry today. We must cry at the times when it's not at its peak, when it's destroyed. Even though we still have the Kotel HaMa'aravi, and people are celebrating that we have an independent nation, which, Baruch Hashem, we do, the reality is very different. We still are under control of both the goyim who influenced the Israeli government, but also the goyish mentality. Not just the non-Jews, but also the mentality of the non-Jews, which is also unfortunately inside the Israeli government, and it's running millions of Jews into confusion. Many of them don't even know that today is a special day for us to mourn, and Many of them don't know much about Judaism, and the question is why? The question is, why are we here? Why are we so confused? Why don't we know what to do? Why isn't the Messiah here to save us? On Tisha B'Av, as the story goes, Hashem decided already at Mount Sinai that it's going to be a day that Am Yisrael is going to mourn for crying for no reason.

3:07decided this is gonna be a day that we're gonna actually have a reason. And for the last three thousand three hundred years, we've always had a reason to cry on Tisha B'Av. Approximately two thousand five hundred years ago, we lost the first Beit HaMikdash. About two thousand years ago, we lost the second one. For many reasons, we've all heard so much about, whether it be Sinat Chinam, Avodah Zarah, Gilui Arayot, or Shfichat Damim, murder. We have all these things... But if you look at Midrash Eicha and Me'am Loez, it goes into depth about the reason behind it. The prophet Jeremiah, already in the first chapter of the book of Eicha that he wrote, every single word through Ruach HaKodesh and every single word with a cup full of tears to match it. He saw all of this. He wasn't writing about something that happened before him. That's why in the first verse of chapter 3 of the book of Eicha (book of Lamentations), he says, "I know suffering. I know suffering." How does he know suffering? He saw it. He saw them get murdered and slaughtered by the goyim, yimach shemam ve-zichram, the Roman Empire that decided Jerusalem is a place they need for no reason.

4:36Much the same thing as all the other goyim throughout the years. They've always wanted Jerusalem, they've always wanted to destroy Am Yisrael, but never really had a valid reason, just that they needed it. They have the entire world; it's not enough for them. They want this little piece of land. The entire Eretz Yisrael is smaller than the size of New Jersey—Jerusalem, obviously, even smaller. But everyone fights over this one land, and... The Zohar HaKadosh says the prophecy that at the end of times the Arabs are going to fight for Har HaBayit. Even a smaller piece of land within the small land. It's going to be one of the signs that Mashiach is near, and we see it happening. You follow the news. You see it happening right now. They're fighting for Har HaBayit more than ever. Mashiach is knocking on the door. Eventually, someone has to answer. But the question is, why are we here? Why are we crying? Why are we mourning? Why don't we have the Beit HaMikdash? Why are we so confused? So, the book of Eicha talks about how, at the times of the Beit HaMikdash, the leaders did part of the job. Part of the job was teaching Am Yisrael certain mitzvot, certain halachot, certain things. The other part was to wake them up when they needed it. So, that was specifically a job for the prophets.

6:01Prophets, all prophets from the beginning of time until the end of time—all prophecy ended about 2,000 years ago. Their main job was to rebuke the people, tell them that they're doing wrong, tell them that it's time to wake up, stop violating Shabbat, stop eating chametz, stop eating non-kosher, and married, don't waste seed, and so on—all of the mitzvot. Waking up the people with the hard mitzvot. So it's not just the easy ones. The easy ones are, you know, make sure your dog is really good. You don't need a prophet for that. The hard ones make people flinch a little bit. They don't really like to hear it. They don't like to hear that they have to change their lifestyle. Hashem says, "I'm gonna send the prophets." But unfortunately, Am Yisrael did not really accept the words of the prophets and killed many of them. So, Hashem says, "I sent you different messages; you didn't listen. I sent you different messengers. Not only did you not listen, but you killed the messenger. Time's run out. I have to be the messenger now." But the problem is that when Hashem is the messenger, it hurts; it's painful. So how did we get to this point?

7:22In the same time of the Churban Beit HaMikdash, we have a story in the Gemara about Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai trying to see if it's possible to save something. Since his son-in-law was the leader of the Biryonim, the Biryonim were like the Zionists of their day. Biryonim were people that were trying to fight with their own arms, with their own weapons, with their own minds. They didn't really want to rely on Hashem too much. They wanted kochi v'otzem yadi; they wanted their own power to beat the goyim. They forced their power on the Jews in what way? By locking Jerusalem down and saying, "No one's in, no one's out, and it's our rule." They took over, but to such an extent that they caused the starvation of the people. And that's why the book of Eicha says that the worst punishment was not really the sword of the goyim but was actually the starvation of the Jews. Jews starving Jews. So Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai snuck out, pretending that he was dead. So his talmidim put him in a coffin and said, listen, we can't bury anyone in Jerusalem, so we have to take him out.

8:40So the Biryonim weren't exactly Ba'alei Mussar or anything. They weren't exactly full of good middot. So they said, oh, let us check. What do you mean, check? Tzaddik, you're gonna open his grave? Even the goyim know you're not allowed to do that. Okay, so let us stab the coffin to make sure he's dead. So you're not pulling a fast one on us. You're gonna stab a holy body? Long story short, they said, okay, fine, fine, fine. Get out. So here we already see the Mesirut Nefesh that Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai was willing to put his life on the line knowingly. For what? To go talk to the leader of the Goyim. The leader of the Goyim was Vespasian. That was his English name, Vespasian. And he came to him and he says, Shalom King. Hello King, hello King. He said it twice. Vespasian is the English name. Vespasian says, "You deserve two death penalties, not one, for calling me king. One, because I am not a king." So Rabban Yochanan says, "No, you are a king because it's written in our Torah that only a king is able to take down Jerusalem, not an average person, not an average commander, only a king."

10:07take down Jerusalem, not an average person, not an average commander, only a king. So as they're arguing, somebody comes in and says, "The king died, and they elected you to be the king. The king committed suicide in Rome, and they elected you to be king." So if Aspasianus says to Rabban Yochanan, "You still deserve a death penalty. Why? The second reason. I've been here in Jerusalem for three years, surrounding Jerusalem for three years. If you knew I was king, where were you until now? Where were you until now?" Every day an average Jew says blessings. He's supposed to do a hundred blessings a day. And whatever the blessing is, whatever the rest is saying, "Blessed are You, Hashem, King of the world, King of the world who gave me fruit, who gave me bread, who gave me this, who gave me that." But every day, what do we do? We sanctify Hashem's name by...

11:30Reminding ourselves and others that He's the King of the world. So every day we remind ourselves that Hashem is the King of the world. But sometimes we say it in many ways: "He's the King of the world, but not me. Everyone else, He's the King of, except me." He's the King of him and them and them and them and them, but not me. Why not me? Because I'm allowed to do this aveirah, I'm allowed to do this sin or that sin or this sin or that sin. Like He doesn't see. He's King of everyone except you. So if everyone would have said, He's the King of everyone except me, then you leave Hashem Yitbarach King of no one. So each day, We have an opportunity to connect to Hashem and ask Him for different things. But there comes a time when Hashem says, "Fine, you asked for all these things, and I gave you many of them. You wanted to see, I gave you vision."

12:37You wanted to hear, I gave you hearing. You wanted parnassah, I gave you parnassah. You wanted marriage, I gave you isha. I gave you whatever, you know, man or woman. You wanted children, I gave you children. You wanted food, I gave you food. I gave you all these things. And every day you told me, "King, King of the world, King of the world, King of the world." So why are you still driving on Shabbat? Why are you still not eating kosher? Why do you still have a Reform mentality where you think that you're supposed to modernize the Torah, change it? I didn't know that the year 5777 in 2017 is gonna happen when I wrote the Torah. It has to change? Nothing changes. Where were you until now? Mashiach shows up. It's not gonna be an opportunity to do teshuva. The Prophet says that one of the signs of Mashiach is...

13:37Is that he's gonna be able to smell your Yirat Shamayim. Whether you have Yirat Shamayim or not, whether you fear Hashem or not, whether you really have kavanah when you say Melech HaOlam, King of the world. You really mean He's Melech HaOlam, including you. He's gonna be able to smell it. And two verses later, it says He's gonna punish on the spot. Smelling it, you have your Yirat Shamayim. Okay. Come with me to our atonement, come you're protected. No punishment on the spot. So anyone who thinks he's gonna have a little bit of time to say, "No, no, no, but I didn't mean it," but nobody, "I could do this, I could do that." What is he gonna say to you? Where were you until now? Where were you? Where were you until now? So at the time of the Beit HaMikdash, some of the things that we don't know are... that the very same reformed mentality that's trying to destroy the Torah and Judaism today existed already back then. If you look at the history books, whether it's Josephus or some other writings from that time, you see that after

14:56Vespasian got his kingship and left, and it says in the Gemara, Masechet Gittin, that he left Titus in charge. He left Titus in charge, and Titus was the one who ended up destroying the Beit HaMikdash. Now, the sad part of all of it is There were Jews who helped them along the way. There was a king by the name of Herod. In English, he's called Herod the Great. He is credited with rebuilding—not building—the entire Beit HaMikdash, but fixing it up. And Chazal say that anyone who hasn't seen Herod's Beit HaMikdash after he remodeled it hasn't seen a beautiful building.

15:57But many of the great sages throughout history say he's a rasha. So how could someone that fixed and invested millions and millions of dollars to rebuild the Beit HaMikdash be called a rasha? It's because in reality, all he was doing was trying to get himself a name. It's like somebody donating a million dollars for the beit knesset, not because he cares about Torah. He still drives on Shabbat, still eats non-kosher, still goes out with a goya. He doesn't care about Torah, but he wants his name on the beit knesset. This, in essence, is what Herod did. He killed a bunch of tzaddikim because he thought they were not going to accept him since he used to be a slave. But he thought that maybe he could do teshuva by investing. "I'll buy myself a really big Beit Knesset. I'll take a billion dollars and I'll put it in a Beit Knesset called Beit HaMikdash." Great. They're going to remember me as Herod the Great. So what is that? That's a reform mentality. That's not Judaism. Judaism without Mussar, that's Judaism without yirat shamayim. That's Judaism without God. That's Judaism as like a culture. He said, "I'm gonna invest a lot of money into stone. Maybe that way everyone's gonna think I'm a tzaddik," but he wasn't worried about what Hashem thinks. People say, "Yeah, but at least he should be remembered for good. He did something good. So from good, maybe something else. Maybe his descendants will be better than him."

17:24Sadly, I would say, "me, me, me," something that's only to make him out of it. A few generations later, his great-granddaughter, her name was Bernice, and Bernice was even more reformed than Herod. She decided that she wanted to be a politician and to make negotiations between the Romans and Am Yisrael, but to such an extent that she was on the Roman side. Just like the people that fight for the Jewish people, who fight for Palestine. It doesn't exist. And eventually, what did she do? She married Titus. So, a Jew married Titus the Rasha Merusha. It actually says in Gemara, Masechet Gittin, of all the Gehinnom that he goes through. She married him, thinking, "No, no, this is good. This is Kiddush Hashem. I'm marrying the Goyim, but I'm going to make peace." I'm protecting the Jews. Little does she know that it doesn't matter what people think. It only matters what Hashem Yitbarach thinks. And if Hashem wants you to win, you're going to win. If Hashem wants you to lose, you're going to lose. If Hashem wants you to be rich, you'll be rich. If Hashem wants you to be poor, you'll be poor. In Gemara, Masechet Rosh Hashanah and also Masechet Beitzah, it says that a person's parnassah is already decided on Rosh Hashanah. From Rosh Hashanah to Rosh Hashanah, your parnassah is already decided.

18:53The Baal Shem Tov asked one time, if it's already decided on Rosh Hashanah what parnassah I'm going to get, why does another part of the Mishnah, which precedes the Gemara, say that you're also judged for it every day? If I'm already judged on Rosh Hashanah, why am I judged every day also? You already judged, you already decided. So, he saw one time somebody who was carrying water and... He says, "How are you?" He says, "Oh, Baruch Hashem, everything is good. It's hot, but Baruch Hashem, parnasah is good, everything is good, family is good." The next day he sees the same guy carrying the same water for the last 20 years. He says, "How are you?" He says, "I know, kvod harav, everything is so hard, shalom bayit, parnasah, this, all of a sudden, Tisha B'Av. What happened?" He says, "Ah, Baruch Hashem, you helped me understand a Gemara that I've been looking into for years." He goes, "Me? I helped you? How could I help the Baal Shem Tov?" I've always asked, if they judge me already on Rosh Hashanah, why are they judging me every day in Shamayim? You helped me understand. They already decided in Shamayim what I'm gonna get for parnasah. I'm gonna get fifty thousand, a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, two hundred million, whatever I'm gonna get. They already decided in Shamayim on Rosh Hashanah. What do they judge every day? They judge every day how I'm gonna get it. Am I gonna get it working really hard in 95-degree weather?

20:19I'm gonna get it just sitting at my computer doing five minutes' worth of work. I'm gonna get it working overtime. I'm gonna get it working just a basic level. Basic level is that lot. So here we understand that someone who has true emunah, a true understanding of what Hashem really put them on this earth for, will never ever work overtime. never ever feel even an inclination to spend any extra time chasing money when he knows that Hashem is the one who decides what he gets. Whether you work an hour a day or you work 100 hours a day, it doesn't matter. The key is having a blessing in the dollar that you get because even if you work a million hours a day, you find a trick to the system, and you invent a day that has 25 hours, not 24. And you find a way to work all 25 hours. If there's no bracha in the money, it's worthless. And if I never worked a day in my life in the business world, then you don't need to listen to me. What do I know? But anyone that knows my personal story knows that, Baruch Hashem, we spent a lot of time working on Wall Street and had much, much money go through our hands. Good times, bad times. Millions of dollars. So I know a little bit about money.

21:44I know a little bit about having bracha in your money, and I know a lot about not having bracha in your money. So here we have Berenice thinking that she could have her own blessings, her own way, her own strategy, excluding God. And God says, going with the goyim is already one punishment. Thinking that you can beat the system is a second level of punishment. It's chutzpah. So even during our lifetime, only a couple of years after she married Titus, the Romans decided that even though we beat the Jews, we destroyed the Beit HaMikdash, we did everything, it’s still not really pleasant for us to see a Jewish woman inside the kingdom. So Titus cared a lot about what people think, so he threw her out. So even that she couldn't win. This It's one of the disasters in our history that's not really spoken about. In reality, it's not just the sins we made of Sinat Chinam, Gilui Arayot, the known sins that caused the disaster of the Beit HaMikdash, but rather it's more about who was behind it. It wasn't just the Romans. It wasn't just the Romans. Last year we did a shiur, we did a big lecture in New York.

23:14Brought many sources to show that, unfortunately, although the Nazis, ימ"ש (Yimach Shemam V'Zichram), killed six million Jews, it wasn't only Goyim Nazis. There were some Jewish Nazis too. There were some Jewish Nazis, some Jews that pretended they're not Jews. They reformed their mentality. Some of them came from atheist families that didn't believe in God. Some came from traditional families that believed in God on Friday night, and some actually came from Orthodox families but didn't really believe. They didn't really believe in Judaism. They, you know, liked the way they wore the black and white, but inside, it was just black and There's actually a documentary about it mentioning different names, different people. It's documented. It's not like lashon hara. We're mentioning all maybe, maybe no; it's much proven evidence. This actually happened. We talked about it last year. So the question is, how do we get to such a point? How do we get to such a reform mentality? Such a warped mentality of what we're supposed to be on earth, to such an extent that we join the enemy and...

24:38And Parashat Va'etchanan that we have this week. It says that Moshe Rabbeinu prayed 515 times, begging Hashem for mercy to go and enter Eretz Yisrael. Hashem says, "Rav Lach, enough, don't pray anymore. I don't want to hear it anymore. I decided that you're not going to enter Eretz Yisrael." So the Chachamim ask, why? What's the big deal? What's the big deal of letting Moshe Rabbeinu in? Because Moshe Rabbeinu was saying, listen, even if you don't want me to come in as Moshe Rabbeinu, I'll come in as a gedi, put me into a cow. I'll be a cow. If that's not good, put me into a bird. Put my neshama into a bird, and I'll fly over Eretz Yisrael. So Chazal answer, if Moshe Rabbeinu would have come into Eretz Yisrael, the first thing he would have done was build the Beit HaMikdash. If he would have come in as a cow, he would have been a korban in the Beit HaMikdash. If he would have been a bird, he also would have been a korban in the Beit HaMikdash. And one of the deals that Hashem made with Moshe Rabbeinu was that anything he does, he puts a stamp on it; it's permanent, it's eternal. The Torah that he gave in the Five Books of Moses is eternal.

26:00Can't change, doesn't matter if it's 2017 or 2097 or 1927, it's irrelevant. Torah is permanent, doesn't change, and knows about you, and knows about your grandfather, knows about your children, knows about everything. So now Hashem said, if I put you into Eretz Yisrael, you're gonna build a Beit HaMikdash. I already know, as Hashem who knows the future, that Am Yisrael is eventually going to make very big sins. After they change their mentality and give in to the yetzer hara, they're eventually going to commit enough sins where the Satan is going to say, "Listen, according to Your Torah, which doesn't change—it's always been the same—you've crossed the line; you have to destroy the nation." So I'm going to say to them, "No, I'm not going to destroy the nation. I'm going to destroy stones. I'm going to destroy My own house." But if Moshe Rabbeinu built it, I can't use that excuse. If Moshe Rabbeinu built the Beit HaMikdash, I can't destroy the house anymore. I would have to destroy the people. And I don't want to destroy My children. So despite all of the 515 prayers of Moshe Rabbeinu, where each prayer was heavier and more significant than the entire nation's prayers put together...

27:27each one. 515, Hashem says, "Rav lach, no, don't pray anymore." He didn't tell him the reason. He says, "It's enough." Sometimes we don't know the reason why Hashem does what He does. But He knows what He's doing. He's been here for a while. But later on in the parasha, we see at the end of the parasha, Hashem is giving us a little bit of detail about who should feel okay if the Mashiach arrives, who should be worried, who should say Tehillim for the Mashiach to arrive, and who should say Tehillim for the Mashiach not to arrive. And the last three verses... Hashem says, "V'yadata ki Adonai Elohecha, hu ha'Elohim, ha'El ha'ne'eman, shomer ha'brit v'hachesed le'o'havav u'l'shomrei mitzvotav le'elef dor, u'meshalem l'sonav el panav le'ha'avido; lo ya'acher l'sono, el panav yeshalem lo." Tzvi Moshe Rabbeinu is telling Am Yisrael a rule. A rule that doesn't change. You should know that Hashem, your God, is the God, the faithful God who safeguards the covenant.

28:50The kindness for those who love Him and those who observe His commandments for thousands of generations. So, rule number one: He tells you that if you keep mitzvot, you're considered Hashem's lover. He loves you; you love Him. He says that the ones who love Him are the ones who keep His commandments, which means the opposite is also true. If you don't keep commandments, you're not considered as lovers. So, if you're considered one of His lovers, all of the basic laws of Judaism say you're considered part of Hashem's lovers. And He's going to reward you for thousands of generations. You can say Tehillim comfortably, Mashiach will come. You're going to be okay if you're keeping all the mitzvot, not if you're doing like 30%, all the stuff you like. One of the mitzvot also means if you see somebody that's making a sin, like seeing them driving on Shabbat, you have to say something. If you can't speak, you get somebody else to speak. You give them a CD, you give them a shiur, you give them a link, you do something. You can't just sit there and look pretty. No, no, I'm keeping mitzvot, I'm keeping mitzvot.

30:00Because that's why the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed. The Prophet Jeremiah says on the first page of Sefer Eicha, he says, why was the Beit HaMikdash destroyed? Because no one rebuked. No one said anything. Everyone said, I'm worried about myself, worried about myself, worried about myself. Eventually, everyone worried about themselves and no one worried about anybody else. Eventually, everybody fell together. So first things first, Moshe Rabbeinu tells you rule number one: If you are shomer mitzvot, you're good. How many people can really go before they go to sleep, and when they say Shema Yisrael, and they do viduy. Do viduy. You read sins you made. It says in the Torah. Chatati, aviti, pashati. Chatati means you made a sin, you didn't know it's a sin. Aviti means you made a sin, you knew it's a sin, but not on purpose. It's just, you know, it’s yetzer hara bi. Pashati means I did it on purpose. I got angry, why? Because he didn't give me the job I wanted. Why? Because my girlfriend broke up with me. Why? Because my kids failed the test. Why? Because my boss made me angry. You go to war with God like Korach. And then it says, details all the things we did.

31:27Can anyone say, "No, none of this is relevant to me," before they go to sleep ever in their life? "No, no, I didn't do anything yet. Everything on this list? Nothing. I'm good. Comfortable with myself. I didn't do chatati. I didn't do aviti. I didn't do pashati. I didn't get angry." The thing is that you're not getting angry because without mussar, it doesn't exist. Without working and fixing your neshama like a diamond, it doesn't exist. It's impossible not to get angry. Without mussar, all we have is anger. So here we see that, yes, it's good, so my mitzvot are good, but we're not a hundred percent there yet. We still have work to do. On the other hand, our brothers and sisters, which unfortunately is almost 80% of Am Yisrael, who don't know anything... Hasn't done to buy it who doesn't keep taharat ha-mishpacha or even says Ma'aseh or perhaps doesn't even keep Shabbat. He says the opposite, what happens to them, and he repays his enemies in their lifetime to make them perish. He will not delay a payment for their enemies to their face. He's gonna pay them in their lifetime. So I've always asked, how do we know this actually happens in real life? I...

32:53Okay, Torah, it's pesukim, it's nice, it's great. How do you see this stuff actually happening? Now, none of us have gone to Olam HaBa and come back to tell the story. But there's a lot of proofs in Olam HaZeh. We can see this stuff happening. About a week and a half ago, there was a celebrity rock star. I believe he was Jewish. I think he has a Jewish name at least. Succeeded in an extraordinary way, millions and millions of records, probably worth over a hundred million dollars if not more. Six kids with two women. So, it seems like in the material world, he had it all. At 41 years old, he decided to hang himself and die.

33:55For all the money in the world that many people chase, he had it, but it wasn't enough. Children that everybody wants, yet six wasn't enough. Wives too, wasn't enough. More than even the celebrities normally have, he's one of the top. Not enough. So if there's ever a proof that money doesn't solve anything and definitely does not bring happiness, this is one of them. Unfortunately, this is a recurring story. Everyone knows of the famous comedian who killed himself about a year and a half ago or so, Robin Williams, at the peak of his career. Worth a fortune, you could feed several civilizations with it. He had kids, a wife, all the material wealth you could want, and all the fame you could ever desire, but it was not enough. There are many other stories like this. It's a recurring theme, unfortunately. That's the purpose of this pasuk in Sefer Bereishit.

35:16Hashem punishes the snake; He punishes everyone, but the snake has a special curse. Hashem says, "You are cursed." Adam is going to have to work to make a living, and a woman is going to suffer when she raises the kids and to bring kids into the world. Their punishment is still going to have some pleasure. and working hard and winning. You work on a project for a year, two years, three years, and it works out. You work on a book for a year, two years, three years, four years, ten years, and it works and sells. You work on a lecture for however long, and it works; it feels good. You worked hard, but it feels good, so there's suffering a little bit because it's hard, but there's something good out of it. You carry the child for nine months, suffering. No one can say, "I love being pregnant."

36:17But you see the little baby. The baby wakes you up at night every night. You can't sleep ever. It's okay. You see the little baby smile. It's worth it. The baby causes you headaches all day, five, six, seven years old, but you see the little baby say "Ima" or "Abba." It's okay. The baby causes trouble, but you see him say Kriyat Shema. It's okay. I can tell you, I have a two-year-old kid and also a five-month-old. Seeing my daughter do a blessing for the first time... Priceless. She didn't say all the words; all she did was "amen" and everybody had to respond "amen, amen." It was worth coming to the world just for that. Her whole body went into the blessing, everything went into the blessing, but then we didn't know that it had to be every bite. So she finished the bite, she's already said "amen." She's got another blessing, what does it mean? "Amen." We have to say "amen, amen." She had another bite, and that was the whole meal.

37:18Worth it to come to the world just for the second bite. But she doesn't sleep, and it doesn't matter. You see the little baby; it's worth the anguish. It's worth the suffering. It's worth the headache. There's a pleasure in there. But the snake, oh, the snake is an enemy of us. And Hashem says, "I'm gonna give you everything without struggle. You're never gonna struggle to find food." You could eat anything. You could eat a cow; you could fit it in your mouth. You could eat a rat; you could eat screws. You can eat anything you want, everything. You can eat all the panacea in the world. I'm giving you everything you want. You could take it. Just don't call me. Don't talk to me. I don't want to hear from you. I don't want to hear from you. You want something? I'm giving you ahead of time all the money in the world, all the panacea in the world, all the fame in the world—everything you want. But because you went against me, I don't want to talk to you anymore. And just so you know, it's all going to taste the same after a while. Whether it's a million dollars or a billion dollars, it's all the same. What, do you think that Bill Gates enjoys his 50 billion more than he enjoyed his first or second billion? It's all the same.

38:45Ask any millionaire what's more valuable: the first thousand dollars they made or the first billion? The whole answer is the first thousand. Back then, they had some sensation to it. After a while, they lose sensation, especially when their biggest accomplishment in life is creating something that is obsolete and doesn't matter anymore, like the snake. So here, we see that in the very same week as Parashat Va'etchanan, we learned something significant. We learned that Hashem Yitbarach expects more from us. He expects us to do something more. He expects us to get closer to Him than to just say Amen. Just show up to the beit knesset to donate a million dollars and then just walk away, but not actually feel, not actually keep the mitzvot. Because what He expects us to do is mesirat nefesh, to work on ourselves. Because if we don't work on ourselves, it's very easy. It's very easy to justify reforming our mentality, very easy. And I'm gonna leave you at this point.

40:04Am Yisrael is known throughout the world as being the nation that's in exile. We're in exile. But there's no such thing as going into exile. There's no such thing. The Chinese left China. They went somewhere else. Let's say they came to America; they're called American Chinese or Chinese American. The Africans left Africa; they came to America; they're called African Americans. Every nation goes to a different place. No one says, "Oh, we are in exile from China." We're in exile from somewhere. No one is in exile. Only Am Yisrael says they are in exile, even if it’s a Jew who never saw Eretz Yisrael for one second, never went to Eretz Yisrael. If he's connected to Torah, he considers himself in exile. What makes us so different? The Midrash Ma'am Lo'ez... That the simplest mitzvah to fulfill is the one that keeps us connected. Which mitzvah is that? The mitzvah of kosher food. When the goyim leave their nation or get kicked out of their nation, or whatever it is, they go to a different country and can easily assimilate. Within a few years, the Chinese guy now speaks English and

41:28Within a few years, the German speaks a different language, Chinese. Within a few years, they acclimate, they assimilate. You see many people that goyim, that have moved from Europe to, let's say, different parts of Asia 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, they're very much in tune and connected to the country they live in. They marry a Japanese woman, they marry a Chinese woman. They marry this thing. There's no like, "Oh, no, I miss home." There's no home. This is home. Wherever they live is home. But a Jew always yearns for Yerushalayim, always yearns for Eretz Yisrael, always calls it home. Why? Midrash Ma'am says because only a Jew knows that he's not home because he has to look for food, and a Jew knows that he's only allowed to eat kosher food. So, as soon as he's out of his place, as soon as he's out of the house, and...

42:34It's to eat at some point. He sees there's no kosher restaurants. There's no kosher supermarket. Then there's no beit knesset. There's no beit knesset. There's no rabbi. There's no rabbi. There's no kehillah. There's no kehillah. I'm in exile. So this simple mitzvah of kosher food is unfortunately one that we could easily fix. That could help us reformat our brains. you eat kosher only in the house but not outside the house, you're better off eating non-kosher in both places. It's the same thing because God is inside your house and outside your house. So, if you eat kosher only inside the house and not outside the house, then it's an insult in Shamayim. They say, "What, you have a limited God? He's only inside your house, not outside the house?" That's the wrong God; that's idol worship. But when we eat kosher both inside the house and outside the house, at least say, "Okay, you know what? This mitzvah I can do because it's easy to eat kosher. It's easy to know that God is everywhere." Once you eat kosher on a regular basis all the time, inside the house and outside the house, not only are you admitting that God is everywhere, but on top of that, it's going to help you understand Torah.

43:57It's going to help you understand what the rabbi is saying every week to you when he says you’ve got to do teshuva. He says you have to do mitzvot. He says you have to do all these good things that are not necessarily part of your nature. It's not part of a person's nature to want to give their money. Why? I worked for it. Why should I give it to anybody else? It's not a natural inclination for you to want to give. It's not a natural inclination for somebody to want to do stuff beyond their normal schedule and... So when the rabbi is telling you, "You have to do this, you have to do this, you have to do this," you say, "I'm already working, I already have other jobs. Why are you giving me more jobs?" The only way you can start understanding it is if you start understanding Torah. The only way you can start understanding Torah is if you start eating kosher all the time. Even though probably, I'm assuming everyone here is eating kosher everywhere, the message is really not for you. The message is for everyone you know that doesn't eat kosher. The message is to remind us that we're in exile. We are in exile because even though you have probably five or ten different local kosher stores, in reality, you still have to look. Whether you're in Eretz Yisrael or you're in America, you still have to look at the kosher sign because maybe it's not kosher. Even if it's in Eretz Yisrael, maybe it's not kosher. As long as we have to second-guess whether it's kosher or not, whether the rabbis actually showed up or our mashgichim...

45:24It's just like they printed it off of the internet. As long as we're not so sure, we're in exile. We're in exile. So today, we don't cry about something that happened 2,000 years ago. We're crying about what's happening today. We're crying about the fact that if Hashem brought the Beit HaMikdash today, He would actually have to destroy it again because of the very same sins we committed 2,000 years ago. Whether it's shfichut damim, the sin of murder still happens sometimes. It's not physical murder, but it's lashon hara. Lashon hara is a daily thing, unfortunately, for some people. Or if it's gilui arayot, which includes modesty and sex crimes in today's generation. If you ask our grandparents, "Did you wear the same clothes during your time?" They'd say, "Yes, only thing is we called it underwear." And... Many women are walking around the street in underwear, and sometimes men too. And avodah zarah is also something that we're doing when we're worshiping our money or working overtime and not showing up to shiur Torah, not showing up to minyan, and not connecting to Hashem on a regular basis. There's always an excuse, and it usually has a dollar sign on it. So if you ask yourself

46:52Why don't we have the Beit Hamikdash? These are the reasons we have a lot of work to do. B'ezrat Hashem this year, we should get some motivation to really seriously do teshuvah—not only ourselves, but those around us. Because the Prophet Yirmiyahu says it wasn't just that people made sins. That wasn't the problem. Hashem decided to destroy the Beit Hamikdash when He saw that there's so much spiritual sickness. But nobody wants to give the cure. It's the same thing that Rabbi Yisrael Salanter said in Or Yisrael. He says the spiritual sickness is increasing, but no one wants to be the doctor. And the reason why is because the medicine is one of a kind. It's mussar to learn Yirat Shamayim. That's it. It's the only medicine. So for anyone who knows Torah,

47:52time for you to go out there and influence the public. You don't necessarily have to give big lectures. You can tell divrei Torah to people that are secular. Don't just surround yourself with only a bunch of tzaddikim. If you have one person, two people that are not exactly so meticulous, tell them something. Tell them, "Man, maybe it's time for you to come to my house for Shabbat." Why not? You'll see it. Try to get some people to do teshuva because if the Beit HaMikdash Was here today Hashem would say it's your fault. You know and you didn't do anything. It's your fault I have to destroy it because you know. So each one of us is obligated to do something about it. If you're not keeping Torah, if you're not keeping Shabbat, if you're not keeping the basics of mitzvot, it's time to wake up. You don't want to be part of this generation where they see the Mashiach, but they have nothing to do with it. They don't know what to do. For us to wake up, it's time for us to start realizing that today is a date of teshuva. Hashem doesn't care if you eat or you don't eat. Hashem doesn't care if you're going to not take a shower or take a shower. He doesn't care if you brush your teeth or not. It doesn't make a difference to Him. What makes a difference to Him is for you to do teshuva today. That's the point of the fast. The point of the fast is as it says in Sefer Yoel.

49:14Prophet Joel says the point of the fast is not for you to rip your clothes, but to rip your heart. Time for you to rip your heart, time for you to do teshuva, time for you to get better. You go learn Torah every day. It's time for you to teach it. Gemara Masechet Avodah Zarah, page 17, says if you learn Torah without an intention to teach it, it's like someone who doesn't have a God. So if you know and you're not teaching, you're not doing anything about it, you have a problem and... You don't have to teach 500 people at a time. Each one person—your kid, your wife, your neighbor, your friend—somebody. Do something with it. Don't just keep it to yourself. Don't be so concerned about your Torah. Mashiach is around the corner. He shows up. He's gonna knock on your door and say, "Oh, you want to come? But what about all the 50 people you're responsible for?" "What 50 people? All of these people, you know them. Don't keep anything. You don't know something? You don't know Torah?" There's a kitrug on you also. What's the kitrug? It's never been easier to learn Torah. In the old days, we had to travel for days just for a shiur Torah. That's why most of the schar, most of the reward, Gemara Masechet Berachot says, was for traveling to the shiur Torah. Today, you press a button, shiur Torah. You go to bezrat Hashem dot org, our website, you have a few hundred shiurim on all different types of topics.

50:37There are many other websites that you can look at. So, it's never been easier to learn Torah. In the old days, one guy would have all of the books of the community. Today, you go to a website, you press a button, and within two days you have any book you want. If you don't have any money, there are websites like HebrewBooks.com where you have 60-70 thousand books for free. If you want to see the book physically, come to the Beit Midrash and... It's never been easier to learn Torah. This is what was missing. We have to start implementing this Torah in our life. We have to start actually understanding that this Torah is not a history book, chas v'shalom. It's something we have to implement, something we have to do. And b'ezrat Hashem, next year, we can have a shiur about how great it is to be a generation that saw the Mashiach. Baruch Adonai l'olam. Amen ve'amen. Okay, so tell me if you have questions, give me questions and I'll answer. Maybe it's even better than a shiur. It's a good question. It's a good question. So the first question was, I was a king. I'm not the king. He says, second question if I was the king I...

52:03Why didn't you come until now? That's the second reason. That's the second reason. So that's the one question you don't want Hashem to ask you. You don't want Hashem to ask you, where were you until now? Now, one thing I know, in America it's very easy to be a goy. It's very easy. It's very easy. You're in galut already. You're surrounded by non-Jews already. And the mentality, it's not exactly the Jewish mentality. even among the Jews, it's very hard to be Jewish among the Jews. You have to have serious spine to stay Jewish. That's actually one of the prophecies in the Gemara, Masechet Sotah, page 49. It talks about different prophecies of what's going to happen at the end of time. It gives you different signs. It says that there's going to be a lot of chutzpah, chutzpah tizgeh. People are going to be very rude. But not just the traditional root of not saying "excuse me," rudeness in much, much bigger regards than that. To such an extent that if you're going to be the one that tells them the truth, they're not going to accept it. Just like you guys, sitting like tzaddikim, whatever I say, okay, fine. Whether you accept it or don't accept it, you're just saying okay. No, people, when you tell them the truth, they go to war with you.

53:26They're very confident where they stand. People are very confident in being Americans, even if they're Jewish. There's a story of Eliyahu HaNavi who came to a person, a farmer. He told him, "Okay, Mashiach is coming. I came here to get you." The farmer responded, "Hold on a second. Let me ask my wife." So the guy goes to his wife and... He says, "No, no, no. Tell Eliyahu HaNavi we just invested a lot of money in planting the seeds for this season. We don't want to lose the money. Tell him to come back next year after we finish." So he goes to Eliyahu HaNavi. He says, "My wife, she's not ready. We just made the plants and everything. We have the business. We have customers relying on us. Come back next year." So Eliyahu HaNavi says to him, "Yeah, but the oyvim are coming." Enemies are coming. It's coming. They're gonna attack you. So, okay. Hold on a second. Let me go to my wife. We'll talk. So he goes to his wife. She says, "Okay, tell Eliyahu HaNavi to take the grain, take them to Israel." Sometimes we're so connected to our money that if you ask somebody, "Do you really want the Messiah to come?"

54:56Not now. Let me finish this year first. Let me get the bonus. Let me close this deal. Let me do this. Let me do that. We want the Mashiach to come on our own conditions. Now, usually, the more successful a person is, the less connected he is to this Mashiach. That's connected. Yes, then this is a problem because one of the things that Hashem does is that says, "The pride of a man is what I'm going to use to embarrass him. So, if he's so proud of his money, of his fame, of his success, I'm going to use that against him. If he's using anything to be proud of except my Torah, I'm going to use it against him. And even with Torah, you have to be careful." Because a talmid chacham who has bad middot, who has pride, a dead animal in the middle of the street is better than him. So, the people that are so secure and excited and happy about being in America, being in the exile, thinking that, no, it's going to be okay, everything is fine. You should know that according to the prophets, you're actually sitting in Edom.

56:24are here in the place that's called Edom, and Edom at the end of times is not going to be our friend. Not going to be our friend. Before Egypt enslaved Am Yisrael, they were our friends too. As a matter of fact, Yosef HaTzaddik and his brothers built Egypt. They put Egypt on the map, especially Yosef HaTzaddik. He made them who they were; they had a few bucks, and he took them and made them the number one country in the world, bigger than any other country in history, more successful than any other country in history, to such an extent that every country, every kingdom had to pay them taxes. But after he died, they forgot him. How do you forget somebody who put you on the map? You don't. You make it seem like he did. The Jews did the same thing throughout history. Most recently, they also did it with Germany. They built their political system, they built their financial system, they built their economy, and eventually, they forgot God along the way. So, Hashem said, "Oh, okay. You forgot Me, so let Me remind you."

57:51Like I said, when Hashem gets involved, it hurts. When anyone asks you, "Where was God during the Holocaust?" there is a very simple answer: He was there. He did it. That's the sad reality. And it's not the first time. The Jews are also building for the last century or so in America. Everyone is very, very confident in their position in America. There's this America-Israel relationship that everyone is so confident in, even though Obama kind of put that into question. Everyone is very confident that they're secure in America. They have their money, they have their house. If you ask anyone that's 60, 70, 80, 90 years old, they tell you, "Yeah, this is the kind of..." Interesting because it is very similar to Germany and it's very similar to every previous generation, whether it be in Spain or in other countries. It's everywhere. The same thing happened. We got so connected to the money, we got so connected to the government, we got so connected to the goyim, we forgot we are Jews. Hashem eventually has to do Havdalah. Hashem has to eventually remind you that you're a Jew.

59:18for anyone who wants a verse to see that this is actually gonna happen. I'm not telling you a prophecy from me, a prophecy from the Torah. This is gonna happen here, too. So in the book of Yirmeyahu, in chapter 16, verse 14, it mentions a prophecy of what's gonna happen at the end of times, what's gonna happen when Moshiach comes and And it says, so the first verse says, however, behold, days are coming, meaning the end of days. The word of Hashem, meaning this is a promise that this is going to happen. It's not like there's no two ways around it when it will no longer be said, "As Hashem lives, who took the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt," rather, "As Hashem lives, who took the children of Israel out of the land of the north and from all of the lands where He scattered them, and I shall return them to the land which He gave to their forefathers."

1:00:35He says, "I'm gonna take—I'm not gonna be known as the God that took the children of Israel out of Egypt anymore because everyone knows, 'Oh yeah, God, the God of Israel, that's the God who took Am Yisrael out of Egypt.' Everyone knows it, even the goyim, even the terrorists, even the missionaries. Everyone knows, 'Am Yisrael, yeah, Hashem took them out of Egypt.' Everyone knows it; no one denies it. So everyone knows, 'Am Yisrael, Hashem made miracles for them. He took the biggest civilization, the strongest civilization in the world...'" of Egypt anymore because everyone knows, "Oh yeah, God, the God of Israel, that's the God that took Am Yisrael out of Egypt." Everyone knows it, even the goyim, even the terrorists, even the missionaries. Everyone knows, "Am Yisrael, yeah, Hashem took them out of Egypt." Everyone knows it; no one denies it. So everyone knows, "Am Yisrael, Hashem made miracles for them. He took the biggest civilization, the strongest civilization in the world." Turned them into nothing and made their slaves into kings. First and last time in history it ever happened. Am Yisrael were slaves turned into kings. The Egyptians had to beg them to leave, so much so they gave them all their money. "Just go, just leave." So everyone knows, the Christian missionaries, the Arab terrorists...

1:01:48Buddhists, whoever, everyone knows I'm beside their God. He took them out of Egypt. Hashem says all of them. I thought I mentioned that I'm the guy that took you out of Egypt. He doesn't say Hashem that created the world. Why? Because there were no witnesses. But took you out of Egypt, there were millions, millions and millions of witnesses. You can't say it didn't happen. Somebody along the way would have said it didn't happen. Now let's say it didn't happen. This is the first time in history people are saying no, maybe it's not true. 3,300 years everyone agreed. Now people all of a sudden are geniuses. All throughout history, I was known as the guy that took you out of Egypt, but that's going to change. That's going to change. I'm not going to be known as the guy that took you out of Egypt. I'm going to be known as the God that took you out of the land of the north and all of the other places. So for anyone who studied a little bit of geography...

1:02:48You have a few continents. How many continents are there in the world? Seven continents. Which continent is called North? North America. Where are the most Jews in the world other than Israel? North America, Canada, and America. This is why the Prophet says He will take you out of the land of the north and all the other places. If it was that He's going to take you out of everywhere in the world, and... Then he would just say, "I'm the guy that took you out of everywhere, who gathered you from the corners of the world." But it doesn't. It says He's the One that's gonna take you out of the land of the north, where most of the Jews in the world are, and all the other places where you have a hundred thousand here, five hundred thousand there, twenty thousand here. The place that has the significant amount of Jews gets a special word: north. So we think it's a mistake, we think it's a coincidence. They call it in English North America.

1:03:49You think it's a coincidence. It's called North America. So this is gonna happen whether you believe it or not; it's gonna happen. The question is, what are we gonna do when it does? We say, "Hold on a second, Hashem. Let me finish this deal I'm working on. Let me buy another thing on Amazon. Let me get another Starbucks coffee. Wait a second." I wasn't ready. What are we gonna do? So this is the biggest question that a person has to ask themselves because the Mashiach can appear in several different ways. It can be a personal Mashiach or it can be a national Mashiach. National Mashiach we know arrives three days after. The prophet Eliyahu HaNavi will come. Hashem says He's going to send Eliyahu HaNavi. Three days later, Mashiach arrives. Before that happens, there's going to be a lot of balagan. There's going to be a big war, a lot of craziness. But once that happens, there's no more time for teshuva, no more time to go to shiurei Torah, no more time to have seminars. There's no more time to...

1:05:09Excuses for why we're this way, why we're that way. There's no more excuse, "Oh, I didn't wear tzitzit because I didn't really know if it was for sure." Why? The fact that it says it in Kriyat Shema twice a day is not enough? The fact that Kriyat Shema is part of the Torah is not enough? That you have to read it every day is not enough of a reminder? The fact that you have to do Kriyat Shema—this is not enough of a reminder? So there's not going to be any more excuses. And the Gemara in Sanhedrin, Daf 97a and also 98a, discusses this. It talks about that once the Messiah comes, there's no more conversion, there's no more teshuvah, there's no more nothing. Clock's over. Finished. So a person needs to ask themselves, once that day comes, am I going to be ready? Now, most people can't tell the speed of a train when they're looking straight ahead and the train's coming at them. You're on the tracks. The train is far away from you, far enough that you can't tell if it's going fast or slow. It's far, and if you look straight up, it looks fast or slow. But it's coming. If you haven't done teshuvah, you're on the train tracks, and you're sure it's not so fast.

1:06:38You're sure that if the Messiah comes, you're gonna be okay by then. Yeah, once I get married, I'm gonna do teshuvah. Once I make money, I'm gonna do teshuvah. Once this happens or that happens, I'm gonna do teshuvah. I'm gonna start learning Torah every day once this or that happens. You're giving conditions. You're making a deal with Hashem that if you give me this money, I'm gonna do teshuvah. You do this, I'm gonna do that, as if Hashem owes you something. The train's coming, and you're saying, no, wait a second. If you already did teshuvah, you're already going to kollel. You're already learning Torah every day. You're already keeping mitzvot. You're already learning halachot. You are sitting on the side. You're off the tracks. You're looking at the train. And you know how fast it's coming. You know what I say to you is true. You know this is divrei Torah. This is not my own opinion. You know the truth. You know the train's coming. But Rabbi Yonatan Eybeschutz Allah said the kitrug is on you, the one that's off the train tracks. The sinat chinam is on the guy that's off the train tracks. And the reason why he says that there's no greater sinat chinam than someone who knows the truth, sees his brother or sister sinning, and says nothing because he knows the train is coming fast.

1:08:07He doesn't tell the guy to move. Tell the guy to move. What's the big deal? No, he's gonna hate me. Well, it's better he hate you than he's dead. The Lubavitcher Rebbe was asked one time, "Why is it that we're obligated to say to people the truth?" Because if you look at the... Original founders of Chabad were Kodesh Kodeshim. The Baal HaTanya, in the first chapter of the Tanya, mentions the Gemara. He says that someone who doesn't rebuke his brother, someone who knows his brother is sinning and doesn't say anything, the entire sin goes on him. You see somebody driving on Shabbat to Bet Knesset. You don't say anything. No, no, as long as he comes, one of those people. No, as long as he comes, you even show him a way to park. No, park over here. No, we need somebody for a minyan. What minyan? He's not counted for a minyan if he drives on Shabbat. According to halakha, someone who drives on Shabbat is not counted as part of a minyan.

1:09:26This is in Gemara, this is Shulchan Aruch, this is Zohar, this is Torah, any way you want. Endless amount of places. Any sefer that was ever written about Shabbat in previous generations mentions someone that's a Mechalel Shabbat, drives on Shabbat, smokes on Shabbat. People know that he's a Mechalel Shabbat. He's considered a Mechalel Shabbat B'farhesya. He's considered a Goy. He's considered an idol worshiper. Why? Because he's denying the Creator. Someone showing the guy where to park on Shabbat and saying, "No, we need him to come for minyan," should know to go back to the books, go to Shulchan Aruch, go to Torah, go to wherever you want. Look at the rules for Shabbat. Look at what the guy is doing. You see that not only is he not counted for minyan, but on top of it, even worse, you are in question for telling him where to park. So, the Baal HaTanya said, one of the originals of Chabad... He says if you tell the guy where to park, you don't say anything or you tell the guy where to park, the entire sin goes on you and him, both of you. Now, both are going to have sweets and gehenom together next to each other. Tell the guy where to park. Why? Because you knew and didn't tell him anything, it's no change. So, they asked the Lubavitcher Rebbe...

1:10:51Why is it that we're obligated to do this mitzvah of rebuking people? They're going to hate us. They're going to get mad at us. He says, if you had a roommate, and the roommate was a little bit of a hothead. He was Moroccan, Tripolitan, something. He was a hothead. And you know if you told him something he didn't like, he may get angry at you. one day he comes home and he says, "Listen, I'm tired. I just came from this; I did this, I did this, I did this. I'm going to sleep. Don't wake me up. I don't care who calls, who texts, or anything. Don't wake me up under any condition." You say, "What's wrong with you? What do I care if you sleep or don't sleep? Go to sleep! I don't want to talk to you. Not just today, tomorrow I don't want to talk to you either." With that attitude, you leave the house all upset because this guy just talked to you like you're a little child. But as soon as you leave, you smell smoke. You look up, you start seeing, oh, there's a fire. There's a fire in the building. What do you do? You're going to run upstairs. You're going to wake up your roommate. You're going to wake him up. "Hey, there's a fire, let's get out." Now once he wakes up, the Lubavitcher Rebbe asks you, do you think he's still going to be mad at you?

1:12:17Still think he's gonna be mad at you once he realizes you woke him up because there's a fire? He says someone who's not a shomer mitzvot is sleeping. He's sleeping. He doesn't know. You are waiting to tell him the truth because you're afraid he's gonna be upset, and... What are you upset about? He's sleeping. Once he sees the significance of mitzvot and what it does to him, and how it connects him to Hashem, how it gives him a purpose to his life, You're going to do it all day. Just like the Zohar HaKadosh says, if a person, if a Jew knew the significance of helping somebody do teshuva, he'd leave everything. He'd leave his work. He'd leave everything and start chasing chiloni’im, start chasing Jews that are not keeping anything, secular Jews. Why? To help them do teshuva. Depends on what mitzvah. If it's a rabbinical mitzvah, like for example, netilat yadayim. You know that your brother, your sister, your friend, whoever, is not going to listen, don't tell him to do netilat yadayim. He saw that he's about to eat bread, and he didn't wash his hands. That's a rabbinical mitzvah.

1:13:28if you know he's not going to listen, don't tell him why. It's a rabbinical mitzvah. But if it's a biblical mitzvah or something like that, you have to tell him. Not only do you have to tell him, but you have to tell him up to the point where he is about to beat you up. Like I said, even if it gets to a point where he's about to beat you up. As a matter of fact, one of the chachamim, one of his original rabbis when he was young—I forget the name... When he got older, he started seeing that driving on Shabbat in Israel became more common. When he was a kid, it wasn't happening, but then it started happening. So he would stop people in the street. would stop the car. Or you put a tallit on the floor. You put a tallit on the floor and the Jews, even though they weren't keeping anything, wouldn't drive over the tallit. They would move the tallit because it's not moving, and you get a chance to talk to them. Try to get them to stop the car, come to the Knesset. But one time there was a big balagan and he was going to join a protest.

1:14:45but he was already very old, probably almost 90 years old, and there were cops surrounding the whole place. They could have told him, "Don't go over. That's very dangerous. They could potentially beat you up or push you or something." These are not the same type of Jews that you're used to from 30 years ago. Some of them are a little bit meshugah. "No, no, I'm going. I gotta go. I gotta go," he goes. "Okay." So the cop apparently knew a little bit of mitzvot, a little bit of halacha. He goes, "Okay, Rav, give me a hand." Gives a hint, "Okay, I beat you up. That's it. You know, you're batel." and he left. Now you know, he fulfilled the mitzvah. I got to a point where I was going to rebuke up to a point where they hit me. They hit me, I come for two. That's the halacha. If it's de'oraita, that's the halacha. So again, sometimes you know somebody's not going to listen to one mitzvah, but maybe he's going to listen to another mitzvah. Another time, he's not going to listen to anything from you. So you bring somebody else. For example, the most difficult people in general to rebuke

1:15:47family or anybody that remembers you before you did teshuvah, huh? It's very, very difficult to get the people from your own life to listen to you because, to them, you're always going to be the past you, just with a beard now, just with a hat, just with okay. You're keeping some mitzvot, like you keep it. What do you want from me? So it's very hard to get them to join you sometimes—not all the time, but sometimes. So the best thing to do is to get somebody else to do it. So, a few ways of doing it is you can get somebody else to do it. For example, if you could bring a rabbi to your kehillah to speak, that's one way. Another way is to give a CD. I have some CDs I brought. Anyone want CDs? They're free right there. Double CDs. Each one is about 30 hours. There's maybe about 75, 80 hours of shiurei Torah on it. You give it to somebody; it's free. English. English. She went into all my personal story: why I left Wall Street, etc. There are plenty of shiurim similar to this on various topics: long ones, short ones, 15-minute ones, 5-minute ones, 3-hour ones. There are some shiurim that you won't find anywhere else, like, for example, the issue of wasting seed in the English language. It doesn't exist elsewhere. There are a total of six hours of lectures about wasting seed in the English language; five and a half hours are me, and...

1:17:09Sad. It's not really something I'm celebrating. It's just a reality. So, the point is that you give them a CD. If you don't have CDs, you go online, you go to my website, take a link from one of the shiurim, you text it to somebody, you WhatsApp somebody, you email somebody. It's never been easier to learn. It's never been easier to do kiruv. So, this is why there's a kitrug. This is why when we go up to Shamayim, they're going to tell you, well, how come all of your friends were still chilonim? How come all of your friends were still goyim? How come? Like, what happened? Why didn't you tell them something? Why did you hate them so much? No, I didn't hate them. I loved them. That's why I didn't want to tell them anything. That's not love. That's hate. You know a train is coming at someone, and you don't say, move? You don't love them. That's not love. Worse than an enemy. At least an enemy is going to say something. An enemy is going to push him that way. At least you're going to know to go the other way. So, that's the most important thing that a Jew has to do next. Yes, I got the question. I answered the question. I already asked the question before you asked it. Said this man, go ahead, we have 15 minutes left.

1:18:31Yes, I said, well, I mean, put it this way: according to all the prophecies, we did a shiur about Mashiach and About a year ago and also another week ago, we did a similar thing about the Messiah. Here's the thing: 50-60 years ago, we had only a few of the signs of what's going to happen when the Messiah comes. Only a few of them happened 50-60-70 years ago. There are several prophecies of what's going to happen at the end of times. I'm a secret. Sotah, page 49, talks about maybe about 25-30 nevuot (prophecies), and there's also a few other places in Gemara where it talks about different prophecies of what's going to happen at the end of times. So, during that time, 50-60 years ago, most of them didn't happen. Today, all of them happened, except one, which is the coming of the Mashiach. Everything that we need to happen has happened, including the red cow and

1:19:58the red cow—we actually have two of them now, and apparently there are more being grown or bred or whatever it is. So, meaning we have everything we need to set the table to prepare for Mashiach. The only thing that's not ready is us. The only thing that's not ready is us. If the Mashiach showed up today, we'd be in trouble, and And the reason why is because when Hashem took us out of Egypt, what most people don't know is that the next parasha after we left Egypt starts with the word "Vayehi." "Vayehi" means, like why, like crying. Why crying? Chazal say crying because Hashem killed 80% of Am Yisrael during the plague of darkness. And the reason why He killed 80% of them and only let out 20% is because they didn't want to do teshuva. He said, you don't want to do teshuva? I don't need you. Hashem doesn't need people. That's the thing we're missing. Hashem doesn't need us. We need Him. As soon as a person understands this and gets this through their brain, then they can start changing their life accordingly. So now if the what are all here? Why didn't it happen? Hashem is giving us more time.

1:21:10He's giving us more time to do teshuva because as soon as the decision is made, the knock is happening. Someone's knocking on the door, knocking on the door, knocking on the door. Eventually, someone's gonna open the door. Once the door is open, time's over. So whether it be Korea, or America, or Germany, or whoever, it doesn't make a difference. The point is, it's here. It's here. It's happening. It could be next week, next month, next year, ten years from now. Doesn't really make a difference because the reality is everyone, including myself, including the good old adult, including everyone, needs to do teshuva on their own level. Every single person needs to do teshuva. So even if the Mashiach doesn't come for another ten years, you still have to do teshuva today to hopefully be ready in ten years from now. Because teshuva, unlike what most people think, is not overnight and... Teshuva is something that takes time. You have to work on your middot. You have to work on your Torah. Okay, so you say, I'm keeping Shabbat, for example. Somebody starts teshuva, they start keeping Shabbat. The reality is, it's going to take you a couple of years to learn how to keep Shabbat. So even though in the beginning you just sleep all day, or maybe you have a kiddush, some parts of your eating could be chilul Shabbat. How?

1:22:23You're eating with a boy. You're not, you don't know how to peel the seeds of pistachios or certain things. There are certain halachot of Shabbat that if you don't learn halachot Shabbat, you're not going to know how to do. So you think you're keeping Shabbat, but really you're mechalei Shabbat. Or you think you know how to make tea, but you're not making tea correctly. And so on. It's different halachot you need to know. So even teshuva takes time to... The biggest part of teshuva is mussar. The biggest part is working on your character traits. That's what the mitzvot are for. The mitzvot are to influence you to be a better you. So if you are not learning any mussar, and all you focus on is halachot, you become a halacha robot. Great, you're a halacha robot. You know all the halachot, but you're not even a human being. You don't know how to behave. You get angry so quickly. You're too stingy. You have bad character traits. Problem. So that's the thing, so teshuva takes a while. I don't think people necessarily need to worry so much about whether the Mashiach is gonna come next week, next month, next year, or in ten years from now. I think they need to make sure that today, tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year they're gonna be the best version of themselves at that point, and

1:23:39Like you are gonna be, I'm doing everything I can today. Today, I did everything I could. Tomorrow, I'm gonna do everything I can. The next day, every day, you exert the most amount of effort you possibly can. Because they're not gonna ask you in Shamayim, "Why weren't you Moshe Rabbeinu?" They're not gonna ask you that. What they ask you is, "Why weren't you Aaron? Why weren't you Yonatan? Why weren't you Betzalel?" Wherever you are. This is a story from Rabbi Zusha. Rabbi Zusha, they asked him, his students. He was a tzaddik, one of the giants of the previous generation, and they asked him, "What's your dream? What's your dream in life?" He says, "My dream in life is to be Zusha. Not even Avraham Avinu, just Zusha." So what does it mean? I'm davening for the Almighty to teach us and... And he says, when I go up to Shamayim, they're not going to ask me, why wasn't I Moshe Rabbeinu? They're not going to ask me, why wasn't I Rabbi Akiva? Because I'm not Rabbi Akiva. I'm not Moshe Rabbeinu. All I have are the skills they gave me. And I am Zusha. So they're only going to ask me why I didn't use the skills they gave me.

1:24:48Talents, they gave me the money. They gave me whatever they gave me. Why didn't I use that to the fullest potential? So my dream is that they don't ask me that question because I did. So, Hashem gives you money, you go up to Shamayim, and you still have 50 million dollars in the bank, 5 million in the bank, or even 50,000 dollars in the bank, and you don't have much tzedakah in your life. They can ask you, "Why didn't you use the money we gave you?" No, I bought a house. Yeah, but we didn't give you the money for the house. No, but I bought a car. We gave you the money for the car. We gave you the money so you can help a few Talmidei Chachamim. We gave you the money so you can help Jews come back to Hashem. We gave you money for some reason. Hashem gave you a reason. The Beit Din of Shamayim decided, let's give him money. What do you think, Hashem? Okay, give him the money. They gave you a million dollars. They gave you $50,000. They gave you whatever money. What do you give? Chayit Tzedakah. $18, the guy made $20,000 last month. He gives $18 tzedakah. It's better to give, but at least it's 440. You understand? So the point being is that when we get up to Shamayim, they're gonna ask you why didn't you use what Hashem Yitbarach gave you?

1:26:02Hashem gave you a neshama. He gave you something. Why didn't you use it? He gave you talent. He gave you a brain. He gave you money. He gave you this. He gave you that. Why didn't you use it? So Rav Avigdor Miller says, "I don't want them to ask me that question because I want them to know that I did use everything I had." So that's business. Hashem should help us to start living with that in mind and not worry so much about if Mashiach is gonna arrive, if there's gonna be an atomic bomb, if there's gonna be this, if there's gonna be that. The only thing you should worry about is what am I doing about me? Because if you're doing everything you can about you, meaning you're influencing the public, you're influencing yourself, you're doing teshuva, you're causing other people to do teshuva, it doesn't matter where you are or what happens, you're going to be fine. But if everyone around you is not keeping anything, if your middot are horrendous, you can live on top of Har HaBayit and it won't help you. So that's the most important thing. Today is to learn that Shabbat starts inside. Once you start with your own heart, you can start influencing others. B'ezrat Hashem, get on the right side to show up ready when Mashiach comes. So, the Shema, think they're about to pray. So, Baruch Adonai l'olam. Amen v'amen. Anyone that wants to come to the shiur, we have a shiur at Aventura every Tuesday night and...

1:27:19And also, like I said, there are many CDs here for free. Take them at the Breslov Center in Aventura. And also, you can go to the website, bezratHashem.org.